Big Gulp! A Soda Tax War is Coming
In the tit-for-tat battle over soda taxes, the ball is now in the industry’s court—how will it respond to the announcement that healthcare advocates plan to push a 2020 initiative to allow taxes on sodas? A soda tax ban came about because legislators, prompted by city officials and union representatives, agreed to a bill to […]
Arguing With Myself Over Janus
What should we think after the U.S Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees? That’s the question I keep arguing about with myself. Janus—which weakens unions by declaring unconstitutional requirements that public employees pay “agency fees” to unions they won’t join — is both good and bad, […]
California’s Oligarchs and Agitators
If one were to distill the essence of California’s Democratic party into a one-page document, it would be hard to beat a recent mail piece showing the SEIU’s candidate endorsements for California’s top jobs. According to its website, the Service Employees International Union Local 1000 (SEIU) “is a united front of 96,000 working people employed by the […]
Major Online Privacy Bill Becomes Law After Whirlwind Week
A far-reaching online privacy bill that got next-to-no vetting or legislative debate was signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown last Thursday – the product of a quickly hammered-out agreement among state legislators, privacy advocates, tech firms and a real estate tycoon whose qualifying of an even more sweeping privacy measure for the November ballot triggered a frenzy […]